The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) recently released its zero-waste guide for event planners. The guide details a number of strategies event planners of all types can consider before hosting people for a get-together.
The SCRD's sustainability and education outreach co-ordinator, Julie Clark, presented the completed guide at the May 3 infrastructure services committee meeting.
"This zero-waste guide for event planners came as a result of many questions that came to staff over the last couple of years about support for events in our community," she said.
According to Clark, the guide is designed to be useful for planners organizing events of all shapes and sizes on the Coast.
After providing one-on-one coaching to a handful of planners concerned about the impact of their events, Clark said she observed that organizers of all types had similar questions when it came to zero waste.
"It's a combination of description and instructions, suggestions with a checklist at the back," explained Clark.
According to the guide, Sunshine Coasters produce on average 440 kg of waste per year, despite boasting a recycling diversion rate of 50 per cent and growing.
Another alarming trend is how much of that land-filled material is composed of things like compostable organics, recyclable paper, cardboard, metal, plastic and glass - 40 per cent, according to the guide.
The guide can be downloaded from the SCRD's website, in the zero waste section at www.scrd.ca/Zero-Waste.
